Spring Creek Mine is located in southeast Montana near the town of Decker, in the northwest section of the Powder River Basin. The mine was acquired by Rio Tinto Energy America in 1993 and previously owned by NERCO Mining Company, a mining and natural resource company of PacifiCorp.

Spring Creek mines the Anderson-Dietz seam, which has an average thickness of 80 feet. The typical average quality of the coal is 9,350 Btu subbituminous thermal coal.

Spring Creek Mine utilizes a highly efficient combination of dragline open-pit operations with truck-shovel assist to produce significant volumes of coal each year.  In 2010, Spring Creek mined and shipped approximately 19.3 million tons of coal.

Spring Creek Mine is permitted for 24 million tons of coal a year. Coal mined from Spring Creek is sold to electric utilities and industrial customers in the northwest, midwest, northeast and southwest United States, various Canadian provinces and exported to Asian utility customers via the Westshore Terminal in Vancouver, Canada. At year-end 2010, Spring Creek Mine employed 232 full-time employees.

In 2005 and again in 2009 Spring Creek Mine received the Excellence in Surface Mining and Reclamation Award from the Office of Surface Mining. These awards recognized significant achievements in developing reclamation with hydrologic and biologic diversity and for intensive effort in establishing rare plants on reclamation.

Environmental Awards

Safety Awards